NFL tells Jerry Jones to cease and desist

Posted by Mike Florio on November 13, 2017, 6:28 PM EDT

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Jerry Jones officially is on notice.

According to Ken Belson of the New York Times, the six owners on the NFL’s Compensation Committee have sent a letter to the Cowboys owner telling him to cease and desist with his efforts to block Commissioner Roger Goodell’s contract extension.

The letter mentions a range of possible sanctions, including fines, stripping of draft picks, and suspending Jones. (PFT reported on Sunday night that some owners have discussed the possibility of initiating a proceeding aimed at forcing Jones to sell the team.)

Belson’s latest article also mentions something that PFT has consistently reported, and that others in the media have pooh-poohed: Some owners believe that Jones instigated Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter to publicly disparage the league during a recent earnings conference call, blaming reduced corporate revenues on the NFL’s current controversies and ratings declines.

The letter, sent after Monday’s conference call conducted by the Compensation Committee, surely is aimed at paving the way for finalization of Goodell’s new five-year deal by getting Jones to stop trying to recruit other owners to oppose the deal or taking other actions to frustrate the process, like following through on a threat to file a lawsuit. In May, Jones voted with all other owners to authorize the Compensation Committee to negotiate and to finalize a new five-year deal with Goodell.

Something doesn’t add up here. Jones should be free to make his opinions known, recruit other owners to his side, or take any other lawful action he chooses. The compensation committee, likewise, should be free to conduct its business, negotiate Goodell’s extension, and make its recommendation to the rest of the owners. WHAT’S THE PROBLEM???

Never ceases to amaze me how much of a baby Jerry is. Jerry, you’re not the first owner to lose a good player to a suspension. Quit with the temper tantrums already.

And I absolutely believe Jerry had Papa John trash the NFL publicly to make a point against Roger’s extension. For all the money Papa John’s makes off the NFL, NO WAY Papa John has a pair large enough to bite the had feeding him.

Jerry has been involved in EVERY part of the CBA process. Including the part where he granted Goodell the power to suspend as he saw fit. He also gave the thumbs up on the extension. This is a product of your own making Jerry. Take it like a man.

For all his other issues, and in the age of social media a lot of those issues more scrutinized than the old days where they’d be swept under the rug or the press would know to keep quiet, rule under Goddell has made each franchise exponetially more profitable with the TV contracts and CBA wins. That’s what the owners care about. I am sure they’d prefer to have had Goodell navigated the waters on some issues over the years a bit more clearly but again, it’s a different social world out there since Taglibue.

Jones knows this too, and has gone along with the program, told Kraft to suck up deflate gate, and respected the leagues rules and committees. Now, is throwing a tantrum because of the Elliot case and trying to get people onside because of Goddells perceived issues. The people that really care or can do something about it are his fellow owners and he’s going to lose that internal battle.

charliecharger says:
November 13, 2017 at 6:35 pm
The owners have made more money since Goodell has taken over, than at any other time in NFL history. At some point, money and success overrules ego and political correctness..

Robert Kraft just doesn’t get it. They don’t like you. They’re never going to likeep you. Constantly siding with them even as the continuously cheat your team isn’t going to change that. Frankly at this point it’s sort of pathetic.

yerdumb says:
November 13, 2017 at 6:53 pm
charliecharger says:
November 13, 2017 at 6:35 pm
The owners have made more money since Goodell has taken over, than at any other time in NFL history. At some point, money and success overrules ego and political correctness..

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Thats like giving Barry Switzer credit for the Cowboys 95 Superbowl.

Revenue was going to go up anyway.

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And it was Bob Kraft who closed those deals. He was asked to step in because Goodell was making a mess of it. Then even after that Goodell was being such a problem he and his people were evicted from the proceedings.

The NFL experience is about to become The Not For Long (NFL) business model: the cost of doing business is about to get very expensive.

1. Players will demand exorbitant CTE compensation and lifelong medical plans
2. The NFL is alienating parents, who are increasingly concerned for their young boys amid the growing cultural perception that football is violent, dangerous and unhealthy
3. There is an undeniable demographic trend that is unfavorable to the bottom line of the NFL: the decline of Boomers, who are NFL fanatics, and the ascent of Millennials, who could care less.
4. There is the real potential for unfavorable tax changes, such as the disallowance of using municipal bonds to fund sports stadiums
5. There is the real potential for Congress to end the NFL’s anti-trust exemption, which allows the NFL to inflate prices for tickets and gear, and permits collusion among team owners.

We’re talking about the guy that was able to find a loophole to allow an opposing billion dollar company to advertise on territory that was reserved by Coca-Cola. Jerry is more slimy and slippery than anyone in the NFL. I pick him for the win over those other jokers with both arms tied behind his back and blind folded.

pastabelly says:
November 13, 2017 at 6:57 pm
Goodell doesn’t need a private plane for life and he’s not worth $50 million per year. They could hire a great executive for less than half of that.
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Seriously, why does it matter to anyone what Goodell makes? Whatever Goodell wants, if the owners feel it is unreasonable, they won’t pay it. Otherwise he will get it. We will never know if that is what he was asking for because Goodell and the competition committee aren’t going to fight this in the press.

Jerry is off his rocker. If the competiation committee stepped outside their mandate, there are procedures for that, if they didn’t (they didn’t), Jones is just screaming into the wind about Zeke.

Let’s all stop pretending this isn’t JJ being butthurt about Zeke. He was FINE before this happened. Now he’s gone rage monster. He’s going to get his whatsis caught in a vise if he screws around with the other owners. They put up with Davis too long and they aren’t about to let it happen again.

I really don’t know how I should feel on this. I do think Jerry thinks he’s better than other owners and has a sense of entitlement. While I am no fan of Goodell, I’m 100% sure anyone who replaces him will be just as hated. Things don’t change much when the most important element of any corporation puts greed above everything.

The only reason they want to keep Goodell is so he can screw over the players in the new CBA in 2021. That’s it. They think he did a way better job than Tags at getting more for the owners. Goodell is like a dog with a bone and now they’re trying to show him who’s master. So they can unleash him on the NFLPA in 2021. That’s why they keep harping about rating so they can cry pauper at negotiation time and cut the players share of the money.

If they strip draft picks because Jones had the courage to call out the emperor for wearing no clothes, I hope he goes nuclear and burns the league to the ground, so a better league can be formed with the ashes of the once great NFL.

The owners’ message or messages are clear. Roger Goodell is excellent for business and Jerry is not. The Commissioner was able to punish the Golden Gooses without destroying them. Jerry’s Cowboys have zero tolerance for domestic violence but hires Greg Henderson and goes to war over Zeke? Orders his players to stand for the anthem when not one of them has kneeled in the past? Bottom line, Jerry is bad for business.

Now all you salty Pats-haters can see why Kraft never fought framegate to the courts. He like all the other billionaires agreed to club rules, however messed/unfair they are – and unlike Jerrah all the other owners were saltily just dying for the Brady-Belichick era to end all ready and restore the parity they all want to induce better revenue for their own team. They mostly also hate Kraft because he sided more with the players in the last labor dispute, so a dynasty on top of that was too much for them to bear. But shame Jerrah never backed Kraft up – he instead jumped all over it and Kraft will never forgive him.

And all you hoping Jerrah prevails need to remember that he privately proposed in Phoenix this past spring that the league stops investigating off-field incidents etc, and then he loudy publicly proclaimed they have a zero tolerance of domestic abuse. The guy is no hero of the people.

The NFL compensation committee? For Goodell? $50 million? For 1 year? A 10-year NFL veteran who retired in 1998 would receive $51,000 a year beginning at age 55. A retired Major League Baseball player with 10 years experience would be eligible for an $175,000 annual pension starting at age 62.

Fans should be able to elect if a commissioner should serve another term. People get the right to vote for the President. The reason the NFL is a billion dollar industry is because of the fans, so we should get a say as to who the commissioner should be. I would vote against Goodell. If he ends up getting a $50 million dollar salary that’s going to coming from fans too, just as much as it goes to pay the player salaries. So, fans should have a vote if the commish should serve another term.

Goodell wants a raise to 50 million a year, lifetime private jet use, and lifetime medical coverage for his family. Goodell is a spineless, vacillating coward, not worth a million a month. He has screwed everything he touches, making NFL a laughing stock. He is a walking public relation disaster.

I AM NOT A FAN OF JERRY JONES! That being said, if I was the NFL owners I would NOT want to cross the man who would know “where all the bones are buried”. They could be up to their necks in lawsuits over concussion, relocation, suspensions and other issues that they would not want public.

This is all so baffling – that the owners would be so stuck on someone so stupendously incompetent as Goodell. Jones has done far more for the league’s money-making ability than has Goodell, and Goodell has generated years’ worth of the worst publicity the NFL has seen in my lifetime through constant mishandling of basic situations.

There’s just no reason at all for the owners to keep Goodell. They have the CBA. The game prints money. Remove the guy who screws up every single PR situation he touches, and everything improves.

The blind leading the blind, and all the while bludgeoning each other. How much more will the fans take?
You think any of this is good for football? You think any of us think Goodell is worth 50 million a year? You really think after 50 mil a year he can’t buy his own darn plane? You think Zeke and even Dez are some model citizens? Sheesh……..Papa John is right……….. Better pizza, better ingredients…………neither of these guys qualify as smarter than pepperoni so they need to go.

limakey says: November 13, 2017 at 8:48 pm
The owners’ message or messages are clear. Roger Goodell is excellent for business and Jerry is not. The Commissioner was able to punish the Golden Gooses without destroying them. Jerry’s Cowboys have zero tolerance for domestic violence but hires Greg Henderson and goes to war over Zeke? Orders his players to stand for the anthem when not one of them has kneeled in the past? Bottom line, Jerry is bad for business.
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Generally when someone says good or bad for business, they’re speaking about revenue and brand health now and moving forward.

Jerry’s a sharp businessman overseeing one of the premium brands in sports to the benefit of himself and the NFL (ie.. good for business). As for Goodell, there has been revenue, but many have argued he just got the keys to the Ferarri and hung on. Unfortunately, he’s now ran the Ferarri into the ditch with his intentional and ill conceived push of the NFL to the left, complete with toxic favorability, declining ratings, and advertiser revolt. He’s a pariah for the NFL brand, and the longer he stays, the bigger the hole is for the NFL to dig out of (ie.. bad for business). But it looks like the NFL just can’t stop digging!

The compensation committtee is becoming the gang that can’t shoot straight. Look at how much has changed since May. If Goodell wants to be paid, then put down on paper some specific growth metrics and some tangible viewership metrics and let it be what it is. Either he meets them or he doesn’t. Instead the committee wants to set up a political system where his compensation is completely subjective and arbitrarily guaranteed. Every NFL fan and every NFL player is watching this nonsense and wondering how the owners could even think of holding players accountable.

Where is Kraft in this whole charade? He alone can move this in the right direction. Grow some stones and show that fans and players matter more than politics and Goodell. That’s what you said in front of the microphone many times.

What has changed since the last time Goodell’s contract was renewed? Sounds like the same procedure.

The resolution authorized the Compensation Committee to complete negotiations on a new contract, the third of Goodell’s tenure as commissioner. His original five-year contract was extended in 2009. The new contract continues until March 31, 2019.

This continues to be my question for the people “rooting” Jerry Jones on. Do you actually think he would champion somebody better for the job? I think we all know the answer to that with his “ranking owner” comment. The guy is an idiot upset because one of his property got suspended for nearly half the season. I thought the Elliot suspension had holes too, but he was absolutely on board with this when it happened to others with way less probability to happen, and why Goodell is so bad at his job is because this idiot has become one of the most powerful owners in the league the last 10 or so years instead of the owners back in the day that put the entertainment of the game over how much more money they can get. If Jones had his way, players would have decals all over their jerseys like Nascar, and they’d already have expanded to a 20-week regular season with 4 more playoff teams. He is tone deaf to the integrity of the league.

hailrskins says:
November 13, 2017 at 6:34 pm
He should lose the franchise for destroying the dynasty they had in place when he bought it.
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Perhaps you’re history is a bit hazy;
Are you talking about the 3-13 season the Cowboys had the year before he bought it? Or the 1-15 season they had the year he bought the team, fired Tom Landry, hired Jimmy Johnson, traded Herschel Walker and drafted Troy Aikman?

Is that the dynasty you’re talking about when he bought it?

Jerry Jones built that dynsasty whether you like that fact or not. It wasn’t even remotely in place when he bought it.

Maybe if we could get back to the events on the field being the focus, rather than the actions and politics off the field, the league wouldn’t be perceived as such a mess. NBA, NHL, MLB.. Those leagues aren’t full of choir boys but they handle their business cleanly and quietly for the most part. Blame whoever you want but if this were a normal business, Goodell would bear the blame and be replaced. The NFL isnt a sport anymore, its a small nation with its own politics and greed.

I can’t stand Rodger G….but ya got to admit he’s one hell’va a lawyer. The man manger to get this commission gig over 10 years ago and managed to parlay the position into over a half a billion dollars in personal salary and yield the most POWER ever by any man in sports. I still hate him though.

Hate to break it to you but fans have no skin in this game. The NFL is a product. This is a billionaire fight and if you’re not in the club you’re opinion is basically fodder. Don’t get too emotional about this.

therealnorwegianblue says:
November 13, 2017 at 6:39 pm
Something doesn’t add up here. Jones should be free to make his opinions known, recruit other owners to his side, or take any other lawful action he chooses. The compensation committee, likewise, should be free to conduct its business, negotiate Goodell’s extension, and make its recommendation to the rest of the owners. WHAT’S THE PROBLEM???

XXXXXXX

Wrong, he should just keep his mouth shut while at work and not make an issue. Do that stuff on his free time.

The saints and patriots warned the other owners of goodell’s having too much power. They in essence said one if you can be next with his crazy rulings. Jerry told both to suck it up andbtakrnypur punishment-both of which were more severe than Elliott’s. Jerry is a hypocrite. Get over it. Wrong time tonight Goodell extension. Should have been prior to losing Elliot.

vancouversportsbro says:
November 13, 2017 at 6:31 pm
Can’t believe I’m siding with Jerry Jones. Six dumb and corrupt owners on the panel. There’s no reason to extend Goodell based on his performance since coming into the league.
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Based on what, fan approval?

Like him or not (I don’t) you can’t deny the following:
TV deals got significantly bigger
Owners all saw their team values ballon
He got an owner friendly CBA signed.

I think others could’ve done many of these things but he was at the helm so he should get some credit.
Like it or not the NFL is a business before all else and business has been good under Goodell.

limakey says:
November 13, 2017 at 8:48 pm
The owners’ message or messages are clear. Roger Goodell is excellent for business and Jerry is not. The Commissioner was able to punish the Golden Gooses without destroying them. Jerry’s Cowboys have zero tolerance for domestic violence but hires Greg Henderson and goes to war over Zeke? Orders his players to stand for the anthem when not one of them has kneeled in the past? Bottom line, Jerry is bad for business.
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Some of the uninformed and frankly stupid criticism of Jones during all this doesn’t even bear responding to, but this comment is different. It’s so bad it warrants a response.

Let’s concentrate on “Jerry is bad for business”: First of all, it was considered common knowledge that part of Jones being inducted into the pro football HoF was the idea that it was Jones’ business acumen that was key to the growth of the NFL. Shortly after Jerry bought the team, CBS’ contract to broadcast NFC games (primarily) was set to expire. It was Jones who encouraged and got Fox to outbid CBS for those games and they have been on Fox ever since. This created a domino effect, as CBS wanted to continue to broadcast NFL games in turn outbid NBC for the AFC package. Shortly thereafter, SNF was born in an effort to get NBC back into the game. This trend continued all the way to TNF (which most people dislike) but nonetheless this had little to do with Goodell and everything to do with Jones.

Stupid narratives and predetermined takes trying to make a point belie the facts. Jerry Jones has been great for the NFL’s business, Goodell has done almost everything wrong and the NFL has grown despite him.

Deflate gate isn’t just Goodell’s doing. He had the backing of the owners. Do you people really think there was no wrong doing by the Patriots. Don’t be naïve. Some sort of punishment should have been handed down. Now if you want to argue the type of punishment that’s plausible.

Ezekiel Elliott domestic dispute is more then just what he is being charged for. He had 3-4 for instances in a matter of months. If you don’t t like what he is being charged for, then take any of the other 2-3.

Players protesting. Player Association is a Union and anything outside of the CBA can’t be fixed without both the owners and NFLPA agreeing. Last year it was a select few. It wasn’t till this year where all teams were involved. Bob McNair and Trump fueled the fire.

Now the Ray Rice situation was a blunder by Goodell, but he made right what was wrong.

JJ backed Goodell 100% up until he’s team was effected. Now he is trying to sabotage by pushing PapaJohns and threatening the other owners. He should go cry on his sons shoulders.

Tone deaf? The obtuse owners (and some here) have their panties in a bunch just cause it’s Jerry. Blank and his fellow ostriches would sooner cut off their nose than spite their face. Like many things, business especially, it doesn’t matter what you did for me yesterday. Goodell is toxic trash now and for any foreseeable future, Jerry’s crystal about that.

Zipper have to disagree. It’s the issues. Robert Kraft clearly as well as several owners have supported their players regarding the National Anthem. In fact, Kraft has said to encourage his players to get in involved in these just causes. Jerry wants to hire or draft any player he wants regardless of the red flags that come with the player and if that player messes up in the League, let the law deal with it. No owner is going to support that. And how can any owner respect him?

Did anyone else see the pictures of some 1/2 empty stadiums yesterday, on the news last night??? This is one of the things JJ was upset over months ago! Zeke was just the straw that broke the camel’s back! The owners better WAKE UP!!!

How ironic… The owners being so supportive of players right to speak out against what they feel are social injustices… and yet, they want to surpress JJ for speaking out against the commissioner and pointing out Goodell’s subpar performance does not warrant a contract extension let alone a compensation package of this magnitude.

limakey says: November 14, 2017 at 9:26 am
Zipper have to disagree. It’s the issues. Robert Kraft clearly as well as several owners have supported their players regarding the National Anthem. In fact, Kraft has said to encourage his players to get in involved in these just causes. Jerry wants to hire or draft any player he wants regardless of the red flags that come with the player and if that player messes up in the League, let the law deal with it. No owner is going to support that. And how can any owner respect him?
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That misses the bigger point.. This is about NFL business moving forward, and those squabbles of yesterday are more of the Hatfield vs McCoy feud variety. Regardless of how you side with the protest validity, the crux is that Goodell crushes petty offenses, but allows divisive politics to enter the game on positions near and dear to his liberal heart. Any owner supporting game-time political stuff generally, and against the anthem specifically, is obtuse about the majority of his fans, and underestimates the effect of said pissed off customers to his business moving forward. Goodell’s contract’s about the future, and he’s taken the NFL brand straight to toxic. Regardless of what many think of Jones personally, he’s crystal on the bigger picture.

Deflate gate isn’t just Goodell’s doing. He had the backing of the owners. Do you people really think there was no wrong doing by the Patriots. Don’t be naïve. Some sort of punishment should have been handed down. Now if you want to argue the type of punishment that’s plausible.
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Other than being wildly successful against mediocre to poor teams, what exactly was the wrongdoing that the NFL established that the Patriots did?